Activities in Kosovo

The Project for Improvement of Solid Waste Management

Background of the Project:

Resolving the environmental issue is one of the important priorities in Kosovo on its orientation towards European integration process. JICA recognized that solid waste management should be one of the most critical issues in the environmental field in Kosovo. Especially, decrepit waste collection vehicles have reduced waste collection rate drastically and waste collection has not been sufficiently done. One of the causes for this situation is low rate of waste collection fee. In Prizren municipality which is the one of the Project area, the waste collection rate is only 60 percent. Another cause is that the municipal population has doubled since 2003. It urgently requires improvement of waste collection system.

As a development policy in the field of solid waste management in Kosovo, the waste management strategies for the period of 10 years from 2010 till 2020 is formulated. In the strategies, achievements of reduction of environment pollution caused by waste, improvement of waste collection services throughout the country and realization of a sound material-cycle society through Reduction, Reuse and Recycling of wastes (3R) are stated as goals. In accordance with the strategies, Kosovo requested for a grant aid project "The Project for Improvement of Solid Waste Management" to the Japanese side. The Government of Japan has approved this grant aid in the amount of 543 million JPY (equivalent to 4.83 million EUR) for the implementation of this project.

The project aims to improve the public waste disposal systems in Pristina, Prizren and some municipalities surrounding Prizren by equipping the relevant utility companies with about 40 new compacter trucks altogether. The "Pastrimi" company in Pristina will receive 10 and the "Ekoregjioni" company in Prizren about 30 trucks together with the necessary spare parts.

• Project type: Grant Aid
• Project objective: The Municipal waste management capability of local governments of Kosovo will be promoted by installing the waste collection vehicles.
• Project site: Municipality of Pristina and Municipality of Prizren
• Duration: March 2011 and October 2012
• Executing Organization: Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning, Municipality of Pristina and Prizren and state-owned company for waste management: Pastrimi for Pristina and Ekoregjioni for Prizren
• Outputs:

1. 70% of collection rate is achieved by Prizren Municipality until 2013.
2. Collection vehicles being used in Prizren region and Pristina Municipality for more than fifteen (15) years are replaced.